Tuesday, January 16, 2007.

For the fifth straight year (and this year more than any other), we get to January before we see Boise State basketball, the Idaho Stampede and Idaho Steelheads finally get to the front burner of the Boise sports scene. This year it took longer than usual, as the Fiesta Bowl hangover surrounding Boise State’s historic win lasted a full two weeks. With five consecutive bowl appearances, Bronco football has consumed December (and justifiably so). And now things have changed forever with what happened on New Year’s Night. But the baton is finally passed to winter sports—and the marquee event this week is the ECHL All-Star Game, with the skills competition set for tonight and the National-versus-American Conference clash tomorrow night at Qwest Arena.

There will be five skills events tonight to kick off festivities. The Idaho Steelheads’ three representatives in the All-Star Game are entered in three of them. Derek Nesbitt will join Stockton’s Nathan Martz in the Rapid Fire competition against Florida’s David Shantz. Darrell Hay, the National Conference captain, participates in the Hardest Shot. And Nesbitt and Greg Rallo will with different groups in the Breakaway Relay. It’ll be fun stuff, and tickets are still available.

The Idaho Stampede is earning its air and space, as its win streak has reached eight games now after a 100-87 victory over Arkansas yesterday at the NBA D-League’s MLK Showcase in Sioux Falls. It’s somebody different every time out for the Stampede—this time it was Jeff Graves with a team-high 19 points, nine of them in the decisive fourth quarter. But in the first period it was former BSU standout Jermaine Blackburn, scoring eight of his 12 points. The Stamps had seven players in double figures, which came as no surprise to coach Bryan Gates. “That’s what we’ve done all year. We don’t have anybody in the top 20 in the league in scoring,” Gates noted proudly. The Stampede has one more game in the MLK Showcase today against Anaheim.

Boise State needs to pick one off on the road to offset last Saturday’s narrow home loss to New Mexico State. The Broncos know it’s there for the taking—after all, they came within four points of Nevada last week, and the Wolf Pack is now 15th in the new AP Poll. It won’t be easy Thursday night in Logan, though. BSU will be taking on a Utah State team it handled surprisingly easily two weeks ago in Boise, and the Aggies will be vengeful. USU warmed up for the tussle with a 74-56 domination of Idaho last night in the Spectrum. Aggies star guard Jaycee Carroll had his groove back as he poured in 25 points, helping even USU’s record at 2-2 while sending the Vandals to 0-4. Idaho is now 2-14 overall.

Jared Zabransky talked about his Hula Bowl experience yesterday on Idaho SportsTalk. He was fired up about his week in Honolulu, not necessarily because of his opening possession drive and touchdown pass (and certainly not because of his last-minute interception for a TD). The value of college football all-star games to NFL scouts is practice, where they can evaluate players in a variety of skill situations. Zabransky felt he had a great week of practice; the ESPN crew said off the top of the telecast Sunday night he “had made all the throws.” Z says he went through five different interviews during the week.

Zabransky had a unique perspective yesterday regarding his Fiesta Bowl interception: “It could be the best thing that ever happened to me.” His agent told him the pick-six by Oklahoma’s Marcus Walker with a minute left probably made him a lot of money (a predictable observation from an agent, I guess). But it does have merit. What if the interception had never happened? Or what if Walker had stepped out of bounds after he picked it, allowing the Sooners to work the clock for a game-winning field goal? Z would have never had the chance for that one last miraculous shot that led to his MVP trophy, and one of the best big-stage finishes in college football history would just be a nice little piece of fiction. As for the immediate future, Zabransky will be headquarted in Scottsdale, drilling three to four hours a day in preparation for next month’s NFL Combine in Indianapolis.

Followup on my Sunday Sports Extra segment the other night: Division I-A stats are final now, and BSU placed players in the national top 10 in five different categories. Ian Johnson, of course, led the nation in scoring with his 25 touchdowns. Ian averaged 12.67 points per game, winning the national title by over two points a game. He was also second in rushing behind Northern Illinois’s Garrett Wolfe. Kicker Anthony Montgomery was fourth in field goal percentage at 93 percent. Jared Zabransky finished sixth in pass efficiency with a rating of 162.6, just ahead of Troy Smith, Colt McCoy and Brian Brohm. And Kyle Stringer was ninth in punting, setting a BSU record with 44.6 yards per boot.

The national leader in pass efficiency was Hawaii’s Colt Brennan, breaking the Division I-A single-season record with his 186. Brennan may take that to the NFL with him—the Warrior junior said yesterday he’s declaring for the draft. There is an asterisk, though; players have 72 hours to rescind their decisions if they don’t hire agents, and Brennan says he may yet withdraw. Various NFL scouts have told Brennan he’s a late first or early second round pick. His absence would change the complexion of the WAC just a bit. Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s Adrian Peterson has opted for the NFL Draft as widely predicted. It just that his junior year didn’t end as planned—just 77 yards on 20 carries in the Fiesta Bowl loss to BSU, leaving him 73 yards short of Bill Sims’ career record with the Sooners.

Former Boise Hawk Dontrelle Willis is in the money again—more than before. Willis and the Florida Marlins agreed on a one-year contract worth $6.45 million yesterday, one day before he was to go to salary arbitration. If he makes some of his incentives, the D-Train surpass the Cubs’ Carlos Zambrano as the richest starting pitcher ever in his second year of arbitration. Willis is the Marlins’ most popular player, but he’s in the middle of some damage control after his drunk driving arrest in Miami three days before Christmas. After a 22-win season and a runnerup spot in Cy Young Award balloting in 2005, he was a respectable 12-12 last year on a team that started the season with a payroll of just $15 million.

This Day In Sports…January 16, 1972:

After years of frustration, the Dallas Cowboys win their first Super Bowl, crushing the Miami Dolphins, 24-3. MVP Roger Staubach completed 12 of 19 passes, and the Cowboys rushed for 252 yards—95 by a nearly-unstoppable Duane Thomas. Having ended every season since 1966 with a loss in the playoffs until falling in the Super Bowl the previous year, Dallas started the season badly but ended with 10 straight victories after coach Tom Landry settled on Staubach as his starting quarterback.

(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment Sunday nights at 10:30PM on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on ESPN Radio 1350 KTIK.)

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